"Lijuan," he said in a voice touched with midnight, "can make the dead walk."
Her heart stopped for a second as she read the truth in his eyes, processed the awfulness of what he was saying. "You don't mean that she can somehow bring people truly back to life, do you?"
"I would not call it life." He bent his head, pressing his forehead against hers.
Sliding her hand around to the back of his neck, she held him close as he told her things no mortal knew.
"They walk, but they do not talk. Jason tells me that for the first few months of their existence, they seem to have some semblance of sentience, that it's possible they know what they are - but with no power over their reborn bodies. They are Lijuan's puppets."
"Dear God." To be trapped in your own body, knowing you were a nightmare . . . "How does she keep them alive?"
"She awakens them with her power, but they then feed on blood." Raphael's voice twined around her, filling her cells with horror. "The old ones, the ones who went to the earth long ago, feed on the flesh of the recently dead to keep their own bones clothed in flesh."
Her soul grew cold, so cold. "Will you gain that ability?"
Chapter 7
Raphael threaded his hands through her hair once more.
"Our abilities are tied to who we are. I would hope I never become capable of creating the reborn."
Shivering, she slid her arms around his torso. "Have you gained any new abilities in recent years?" Because she knew him, knew how thin the line he'd skated. Not that long ago, he'd broken every bone in a vampire's body while the pitiful creature remained conscious. It had been a punishment Manhattan would never forget. "Raphael?"
"Come." He rose into the air.
Yelping, she shifted her hold to around his neck. "You could've warned me."
"I have faith in your reflexes, Elena."After all, if you hadn't shot Uram, New York might yet be drowning in blood.
She snorted. "That wasn't all me. I seem to remember you throwing fireballs at him."
"Angelfire," he murmured. "One touch and it would've killed you."
Rubbing her face against his chest as he flew them over the lethal beauty of the massive mountain range that surrounded the lights of the Refuge, she said, "I'm hard to kill."
"Take care, hunter." Dipping, he swept down toward the edge of a crashing waterfall.
"You can still be hurt."
They were so close she could skim her fingers along the glittering beauty of the water, the droplets diamonds trapped under moonlight. Wonder burst to life inside of her.
"Raphael!"
Rising, he flew them back up into the icily clear night sky, each star cut in crystal.
"You said a strong vampire could kill me," she said, feeling the cold color her cheeks as the wind ripped through her hair. "Angelfire, I can guess. What else am I vulnerable to?"
"Angelfire is the easiest method, but those archangels who can't create the fire have other means."
"I wasn't planning on hanging out with the Cadre, so that's good."
Lips against her ear, a touch that seared her to the toes, but his words . . . "Disease is no longer your enemy, but fellow angels can also kill you. You're so young that if you were partially dismembered, you'd die."
She swallowed her gorge at that violent image. "That happen often?"
"No. Usually, the head is cut off and burned. Very few survive that."
"How couldanyone survive?"